The subject invention is generally directed to swath type printers, and more particularly to techniques for reducing pixel density to allow for higher throughput while introducing minimal artifacts to the printed output.
A swath printer is a raster or matrix type printer that is capable of printing a plurality of rows of dots in a single scan of a movable print carriage across the print media. The possible locations for dots that can be printed by a raster printer can be represented by an array or grid of pixels or square areas arranged in a rectilinear array of rows and columns wherein the center to center distance or dot pitch between pixels is determined by the resolution of the printer. For example, if a printer is capable of printing 300 dots per inch (dpi), the dot pitch of the pixel array would be 1/300th of an inch.
The print carriage of a swath printer typically includes a plurality of printing elements (e.g., ink jet nozzles) displaced relative to each other in the media motion direction which allows printing of a plurality of rows of dots. Depending upon application, the separation between the printing elements in the media scan direction can correspond to the dot pitch for the highest or finest resolution at which the printer can operate (e.g., 1/300th of an inch for 300 dot per inch (dpi) resolution). The printing elements of a swath printer are commonly implemented in a printhead such as a thermal ink jet printhead that is integral to a replaceable ink jet printhead cartridge.
The quality of the printed images produced by a raster printer depends to large degree on the resolution of the printer. Higher or finer resolution wherein the printed dots are more closely spaced provides for higher quality images.
A consideration with increasing the resolution of ink jet printers is that throughput decreases with increased resolution. Throughput can be increased by reducing pixel density, but a consideration with reducing pixel density is the introduction of artifacts into the printed image.